British Open heads back to Old Course at St. Andrews in 2021

Zach Johnson poses with the claret jug trophy after winning the British Open Golf Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland in 2015. The British Open is returning to the Old Course to mark the 150th anniversary of the world’s oldest major. (Peter Morrison/AP)

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The British Open is returning to the home of golf in 2021.

The Old Course will host the 150th anniversary of the world’s oldest major to mark “a true celebration of golf’s original championship and its historic ties to St. Andrews,” the R&A said Monday.

It will be the 30th time the Open Championship is played on the Old Course, and the first since 2015 when Zach Johnson lifted the claret jug after a three-way playoff.

It ends the cycle of St. Andrews staging the Open every five years since 1990. It first hosted the event in 1873, when an 18-hole course was used in the championship for the first time. Tom Kidd won that year.